Potential Trouble At USC

We’re not exactly to the point where we should be asking “What did the President know and when did he know it?” but there is a potential scandal a-brewing at USC involving Heisman winner Reggie Bush and questions regarding his family’s use of a home owned by aspiring sports marketeer Michael Michaels.

State records show the Apple Street home was built in late 2004 and early 2005, then purchased by Michaels on March 29, 2005 for $757,500. Around that time, neighbors say Bush’s family moved in. Whether they had visited the house while it was being built is unknown, but there is an inscription in one of the cement slabs in the driveway reading “The Griffins ’05.”

The great unknown right now is if Bush’s family paid rent–and at the proper rate–to Michaels, or not.

If it is found that the Bushes received some sort of extra benefit, it could possibly result in USC being forced to forfeit some games, though that is not a likelihood at this point.

If they did indeed pay rent, then there’s no issue.

I wrote a while back that, given the almost-unprecedented talent that Pete Carroll continues to recruit to USC, only scandal, hubris, horrible injuries, key players not panning out or Carroll leaving are likely to derail the current Trojan dynasty.

Of all those problems, scandals are usually the worse. They affect recruiting, the penalties cost a program money, a school’s name gets dragged through the mud and you usually end up losing your coach, too–he either beats the posse to the next job or is forced out.

Scandals can be the beginning of the end of a coaching tenure. They explode and the dominoes usually start falling.

The Pac-10 is leading the investigation of the Bush home issue. The only bright side for USC right now is that it’s not a scandal involving direct activity by the school, its athletic department, or its boosters. There’s no Logan Young or Sam Gilbert to be found.

About Heismanpundit

Chris Huston, A.K.A. ‘The Heisman Pundit‘, is a Heisman voter and the creator and publisher of Heismanpundit.com, a site dedicated to analysis of the Heisman Trophy and college football.
Dubbed “the foremost authority on the Heisman” by Sports Illustrated, HP is regularly quoted or cited during football season in newspapers across the country. He is also a regular contributor on sports talk radio and television.